Hull City look like they’re staying in the Premier League, while any Champions League hopes Liverpool had are now well and truly buried. The teams are headed in different directions relative to their goals for the season after the Tigers’ 1-0 upset win at the Circle on Tuesday.
3 things we learned from Hull City’s big 1-0 win over Liverpool
The Tigers are (probably) staying up.
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The match was a wide-open one from the start, with both goalkeepers having to make excellent saves in the opening 20 minutes to keep the match scoreless. Hull broke the deadlock in the 37th minute thanks to Michael Dawson, who scored his first Premier League goal for the club. Liverpool managed to clear away a corner without much incident, but Ahmed Elmohamady recovered the ball and everyone stayed forward for Hull. Mario Balotelli didn't step up with the rest of his defense, playing Dawson onside, and he headed past Simon Mignolet.
It was unsurprisingly all Liverpool from there, but they never found an equalizer. Jordan Henderson was a terror through the center, regularly setting up chances and forcing Steve Harper into multiple good saves. Adam Lallana nearly scored in the 86th minute, scraping the top of the crossbar on a long shot just after a corner.
Unfortunately for Liverpool a combination of Harper’s play and good luck was enough to keep a clean sheet for Hull.
Hull City: Harper, McShane, Dawson, Chester, Brady, Quinn (Ramirez 84'), Huddlestone, Livermore, Elmohamady, Aluko (Bruce 86'), N'Doye (Rosenior 90')
Goals: Dawson (37’)
Liverpool: Mignolet, Lovren (Markovic 76'), Skrtel, Can, Johnson, Allen, Henderson, Ibe (Lallana 65'), Coutinho, Sterling, Balotelli (Lambert 65')
Goals: None
3 things
1. Hull are probably safe - 34 points doesn't guarantee safety in the Premier League ... pretty much ever. Teams with that total get relegated all the time. But it's difficult to envision all of Sunderland, Leicester and Aston Villa bettering that total. Hull also have a better goal differential than any of those teams. They're three ahead of Leicester and a likely unsurpassable margin ahead of the other two. Even if they lose their last four games, they'll probably just barely stay up.
2. Mario Balotelli isn't coming good - Yet again, Balotelli shed the "lazy" label and worked very hard. He also did all of his hard work in the wrong places, veering offside regularly and not getting into good places to receive the ball. He didn't get many chances, but fluffed the ones he did. He's not showing any signs of improvement and Liverpool should be happy just to get his contract all the way off the books this summer -- forget recouping their transfer fee.
3. A collapse isn't all bad for Liverpool - Last year, when Liverpool challenged for the Premier League title and finally secured Champions League qualification after many years outside the top four, they didn't have to contend with Europa League. If they fall behind Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur, which is looking fairly likely, they'll miss out on the competition again. Is that really a bad thing?
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